The Briefing: Arsenal 2-1 Wolves – Odegaard’s goal of the season (so far) and sloppy

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Another home game, another win for Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta’s side moved four points clear at the top of the Premier League — albeit perhaps only for 24 hours, with Manchester City playing Tottenham tomorrow — after excellent first-half goals from Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, both the result of swift, subtle passing exchanges, swatted aside Wolves.

While Wolves caused some nervous moments at the end with Matheus Cunha’s well-taken goal, Arsenal held on. Takehiro Tomiyasu hobbling off late on with what looked like a calf injury was the only blot on Arsenal’s day.

Here, we analyse the major talking points.

Premier League – top of the table

Did Odegaard score Arsenal’s goal of the season so far?

When Saka’s cross from the right in the sailed to the other side of the penalty area, it looked like Arsenal’s attack had stalled.

Oleksandr Zinchenko had a different take. The left-back came steaming onto the ball at a speed which suggested he was about to fire it back into the area, but that was the disguise. He closed his foot on the ball at the last second, playing into the feet of Gabriel Jesus who had peeled away from goal.

Nelson Semedo was caught off guard and while he stood still, Zincheno continued his run down the line. The ball came to Jesus at pace but he managed to see the angle and execute a first time cushioned pass back into the path of Zinchenko.

It looked like a ball across goal was incoming but Zinchenko had the awareness to spot that Odegaard had cleverly held his position at the edge of the box.

Despite the picture changing so quickly, Zinchenko pulled the ball back for Odegaard to take first time. It would have been easy to miscue but he used the pace already on the ball to simply sweep it home in what has become a trademark finish for the Norwegian.

It was the prettiest goal that Arsenal have scored this season, featuring 18 passes in total. No Arsenal goal has had more in the Premier League this term.

Perhaps its only rival was Saka’s opening goal seven minutes earlier, Arsenal’s 100th goal in all competitions this calendar year and one which underlined their renewed desire to access the penalty area from wide even when being doubled up on.

Saka creatively shifted the ball to his right to attract pressure before flicking the ball through the gap it had created. Jesus pinned the defender with his back to goal, and his exquisite footwork saw Saka receive the ball back as he ran inside.

How valuable are early goals to Arsenal?

So far this season the feeling has been that if Arsenal don’t score early, the game becomes tense.

Arteta made the point that “game state” has been a big factor in their play not being as fluid with teams setting up in a low block the longer the score is level.

Arsenal scored 19 times in the first 20 minutes of games last season but Saka’s goal against Bournemouth was the only time they had done so in the first 13 league games this campaign. The floodgates opened that day and when he repeated the trick in the sixth minute against Wolves it had a similar calming effect.

Arsenal’s earliest PL goals this season

Time	Player	Opposition
5:49	Saka	Wolves
12:25	Odegaard	Wolves
16:28	Saka	Bournemouth
25:08	Romero	Tottenham Hotspur
25:23	Nketiah	Nottingham Forest
27:48	Nketiah	Sheffield United
27:59	Odegaard	Manchester United

Arsenal created enough chances to score four or five in a largely one-sided first half, with Leandro Trossard having a shot saved by Jose Sa, Gabriel Martinelli curling against the post and Jesus missing two clear chances.

Is Zinchenko’s sloppiness becoming a big problem?

It had all seemed so comfortable for Arsenal but then, in the 86th minute, Zinchenko had one of his glitches.

The Ukrainian had only minutes earlier come over to his team mates during a stoppage in play to encourage calm with the victory all but in the bag. But when Declan Rice had broken up an attack in his own box, Zinchenko dallied on the ball and Cunha robbed him to rifle into the top corner.

It is the sort of relaxed play that often blemishes polished performances from Zinchenko. It wasn’t the only time he was guilty of it, though, as in the first half he came across to cover but lost the ball and had to be bailed out by Martinelli.

Oleksandr Zinchenko was guilty of some poor errors (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

On another occasion he was involved in a mix up that saw David Raya have to make a one-on-one save. When the ball came back to him at the edge of the box, instead of clearing it he was too relaxed and lost it again.

For such an intelligent player, these losses of concentration give the opposition encouragement where it hadn’t existed before, and gave Arsenal — whose side’s defensive work, especially in their pressing, was largely exemplary — a headache they didn’t need.

What did Mikel Arteta say?

The Spaniard revealed that Tomiyasu had been withdrawn after feeling a pain in his leg.

“He felt something,” he said. “I don’t know if it was fatigue. We decided to change straight away and we didn’t want to take any risks. Let’s assess him and see how he is.”

Arteta generally cut a satisfied figure after his side’s win, even if there was lingering frustration that the result was not more emphatic.

“Football is not perfect, but I’m really happy with the way we played,” Arteta told the BBC. “It should have been a much bigger scoreline. We made a mistake and they take the chance, and it’s game on in the Premier League.

“We had chances and we didn’t put them away, but we kept trying. We had some big, big chances to put the game to bed.

“We have to keep winning matches and performing the way we are. That’s the challenge, to keep doing that every three days because we have another important game at Luton (on Tuesday).”

What next for Arsenal?

Tuesday, December 5: Luton Town (A), Premier League, 8:15pm GMT, 3:15pm ET

Arsenal travel to Kenilworth Road for the first time since December 1991 — when, as defending champions of the old First Division, a George Graham-managed side including David Seaman, Tony Adams, David Rocastle and Ian Wright lost 1-0. Luton were something of a bogey team for Arsenal back in those days: they haven’t beaten them away in 10 attempts going back to January 1984, and were also defeated 3-2 when the clubs met in the 1987-88 League Cup final.